With the civil war raging in
Syria and Iran’s continued pursuit of its suspected nuclear weapons program, the
Hezbollah terrorist group stands as a bridge to those growing threats facing
Israel.

Click photo to download. Caption: On July 19, 2012, a man injured in the prior day's terrorist bombing which killed five Israelis and their bus driver in Burgas, Bulgaria, is tended to by Israeli emergency response professionals. An investigation by Bulgaria implicated the Hezbollah terrorist organization in last summer's attack. Credit: Yossi Zeliger/FLASH90.

The Lebanese-based Shi’a terror
organization has become one of the most powerful paramilitary organizations in
the Middle East. Amid an international effort to stem Hezbollah’s influence and
operations, the European Union (EU) continues to pose an obstacle to the unity
of that effort through its refusal to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization.

Recently, Israeli President
Shimon Peres, in a historic speech, addressed the EU Parliament over the issue
of the Hezbollah terrorist group. During his speech, the first given by an
Israeli head of state to the EU in nearly three decades, Peres took the
opportunity to confront EU lawmakers about the growing threat Hezbollah poses
for regional and global stability.

“Recently, 20 terror attempts
by Hezbollah were counted all over the world, in India, Thailand, Georgia,
South Africa, the U.S., Egypt and Greece, among others,” Peres said March 12.

Peres also reiterated
Hezbollah’s growing role in EU territory.

“Last month, the government of
Bulgaria, a member of this European Union, reported that it had identified that
the [July 2012] terror attack in Burgas, was carried out by Hezbollah. Five
Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian citizen lost their lives,” Peres said.

JNS.org asked Dr. Magnus Norell, adjunct scholar at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy and Senior Policy Advisor at the European
Foundation for Democracy (EFD) in Brussels, what he thought of the speech and
whether it would have an impact on EU policy.

“Well, it was a forceful
speech… but he wasn’t really saying anything new, or anything Israelis haven’t
said many times before. I don’t think that speech, in and of itself, will
change any minds in the EU,” Norell told JNS.org.

Indeed, despite its involvement
in terrorism within their borders, many EU states have been reluctant to
designate the Hezbollah terrorist group as such, despite strong pressure from
Israel and the U.S.

“We know what Israel knows:
Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Period,” Vice President Joe Biden told
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in early March.

“And we—and me—we are urging
every nation in the world that we deal with—and we deal with them all—to start
treating Hezbollah as such and naming them as a terrorist organization,” Biden
said.

EU leaders, however, do not yet
seem to be moved.

“There is no automatic listing
just because you have been behind a terrorist attack. It’s not only the legal
requirement that you have to take into consideration, it’s also a political
assessment of the context and the timing,” said Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s
counter-terrorism coordinator, in a recent statement.

In light of the EU’s stance, JNS.org asked Dr. Norell about what type
of network Hezbollah operates in Europe.

“Historically, [Hezbollah has
been] mostly networks of propaganda and funding. But the terror-side has been
there all the time, even if it took some time for Europe to catch on,” Norell
said. (Today the Europol database designates Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization.) Lately, Norell continued, Hezbollah has “become more and more
involved in crime-ventures, like drug-running and criminal networks.”

One of the biggest casualties
of the EU’s unwillingness to confront Hezbollah is Lebanon itself.

“Left unmolested, Hezbollah not only
undermines Lebanon’s security, institutions, and political system, but is also
set track to compromise its foreign relations, ruin its financial system, and
destroy whatever remains of its social cohesion,” wrote Tony Badran, research
fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, in NOW Lebanon.

While developing its own “state within a state”
framework over the past few decades, the Hezbollah terrorist organization has
also simultaneously gained control over the Lebanese government. In 2005, it assassinated
one of its chief political opponents, Sunni Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri,
according to a United Nations tribunal that investigated the case.

Since then, Hezbollah has largely subdued the
Sunni opposition led by Rafiq’s son, Saad Hariri, in Lebanon through coercion
and fears over the militia’s strength. In 2011, a Hezbollah-backed candidate,
Najib Mikati, from the pro-Hezbollah “March 8 alliance,” became prime minister,
consolidating Hezbollah’s control over the Lebanese government.

Many EU governments have shown reluctance to
confront Hezbollah’s terrorism as a result of Hezbollah’s political control and
its significant influence over Lebanese society through

its various schools,
hospitals and charities, largely due to generous Iranian funding.

“The EU tends to overlook the terrorist- and
criminal sides of Hezbollah because it’s also involved in social issues and is
a political party. But it also fears triggering conflicts back home. Remember
Europe had a string of Hezbollah- instigated attacks and murders in the 1990's
and early in the 21st century,” Norell told JNS.org.

Despite fears of reprisals,
leading EU states such as France have been willing to risk attacks by
extremists in other instances, such as confronting al-Qaeda linked groups in
Mali.

JNS.org asked Dr. Norell about how France has confronted Islamists
in its former colony in Mali in Africa, compared with its unwillingness to
confront Hezbollah in Lebanon, another former French protectorate.

“It’s a valid point, to some
extent. But the French relations with Mali (and former colonies in North
Africa) are very different from that with Lebanon. Again, the ‘don’t rock the
boat’-notion in regards to Lebanon, easily trumps any other concerns. The
French are well aware of the role Hezbollah plays in Lebanon, but—so far at
least—that’s not been enough to change the policy. If the French did, however,
it would have wide repercussions in the EU as a whole. On matters concerning
the Levant, the EU tends to defer to France,” Norell said.

At the same time, by Hezbollah's becoming
the dominant force in Lebanese politics, many EU governments fear being cut out
of Lebanon completely.

“I should add here that another reason I’ve
heard several times for the ‘non-designation’ of Hezbollah is that it will make
it much more difficult to talk to Hezbollah. The subtext to that argument is that by
talking to Hezbollah, it’s possible to make them change. It's a
stupid argument if you ask me, but I think it tells you a lot about the
thinking here when dealing with organizations such as Hezbollah,” Norell told JNS.org.

Without EU support, it is
difficult for the U.S. and Israel to form a strong international consensus to
weaken the terror organization.

“I’m afraid appeasement is
still alive and kicking in many corners of the EU,” Norell concluded.

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